Four new education titles top my list for must-reads: A New Culture of Learning, The Influence of Teachers, Too Simple to Fail: A Case for Educational Change, and Teaching the Taboo.
For those who are looking forward to what schooling might become, “A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Flux” is essential reading. John Seely Brown is a deep thinker whose interests encompass just about everything. To give you a taste of the thinking in this text, here are a couple of quotes from the book. “We propose reversing the order of things. What if, for example, questions were more important than answers? What if the key to learning were not the application of techniques but their invention? What if students were asking questions about things that really mattered to them?” And “The ability to play may be the single most important skill to develop for the twenty-first century.” Absolutely! “A New Culture of Learning” turns school on its head, which the authors say is essential because the world our kids live in is already upside down. In short, play is the new work, and questions are the new answers. The book is only available on Amazon.
“The Influence of Teachers,” by John Merrow is the next recommended read. How can schools and teachers change to keep up with the current educational landscape, a world in which young people must learn how to ask the right questions, not merely parrot back the ‘right’ answers? In this urgent and insightful book, John Merrow draws on his experience as a reporter for PBS and NPR to examine this question and others, and offer possibilities and solutions for a new education system. Told through warm storytelling and compelling case studies, Merrow paints a vibrant and inspiring picture of why and how we must transform – not reform – our schools.
“Too Simple to Fail: A Case for Educational Change” by R. Barker Bausell, PhD is also a must-read. While I do not agree with all of Bausell’s theories on first review, I am intrigued by the propositions offered in this text and the implications for educational policy and teacher preparation.
Principles from Too Simple to Fail include the following:
–The current classroom model for delivering instruction sets severe limits upon the degree to which learning can be increased.
–The tests used to evaluate instruction are woefully obsolete, constructed using a century-old intelligence model designed to measure an attribute that is impossible to define or quantify with precision.
–The achievement gap is not a matter of dysfunctional schools, poor teachers, or genetic deficiencies, but of unequal access to education-rich home learning environments.
–One-to-one instruction is the most effective teaching model ever developed.
–We now have the knowledge to transform schools and eliminate the racial-socio-economic achievement gap by simulating the tutoring paradigm in every classroom with teachers and technology.
“Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom” by William and Rick Ayers is a provocative and highly acclaimed collection of essays by these two activists who have dedicated their lives to teaching and the struggle to improve education for all children. In this volume, the Ayers brothers share classroom stories and struggles – they invite readers to question the basic assumptions and unexamined truths they hold about the purposes, aims, and potential of schooling, young children, and the profession of teaching. They argue that education should not be about tests, competition, and supporting the status quo but of opening doors, expanding minds, and handing power over to students as they engage in the world.
